Recollections of the Vine Hunt. 



of which is fast fading away, and can tell some curious 

 stories that are known only to myself I will therefore 

 attempt the work that you have been pleased to im- 

 pose upon me, and will so far enlarge it as to include 

 some brief notices of what I saw in countries adjoining 

 to the Vine. You must expect a little egotism when 

 you call on a sexagenarian to recount his own recol- 

 lections ; but I will try to say as much of other people 

 and as little of myself as I can. 



But before I enter on the proposed subject, I must 

 try to give some idea of the different styles of hunting 

 which prevailed in the last century and in the present. 



I believe that, a hundred years ago, though there 

 was abundance of hunting, yet it was not conducted 

 so systematically, nor generally on so grand a scale, 

 as it is now. The sport was diffused amongst many 

 smaller establishments, instead of being concentrated 

 into a few large ones. This was especially the case 

 with harriers, of which most country squires, and some 

 tenant farmers, kept each his own cry of hounds, more 

 or less numerous according to his means ; and came 

 near to a realisation of that ideal old English gentle- 

 man in the song, 



Who never hawked nor hunted but on his own ground. 



For instance : late in the last century, two neighbour- 

 ing squires, Terry of Dummer and Harwood of Dean, 

 kept each a regular pack of harriers, scarcely five 

 miles apart ; yet the Digweed family, who then, as now, 

 rented nearly the whole parish of Steventon, had a few 

 couples of beagles, with which they hunted over the 

 ground that they occupied midway between the two. 



But, besides the numerous packs of harriers belong- 

 ing to individual proprietors, there was a peculiar 



